Dear Climate Health Now Community,

We hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. It's hard to believe 2021 is drawing to a close. In case you missed our December monthly meeting, you may find a recording here.

This opening note is much longer than usual -- we hope you'll stay with us.

When we started Climate Health Now in 2019 we were coming from a place of fear. Between us we had 3 kids under the age of 5. Ashley had just spent a portion of her maternity leave monitoring outdoor air quality in the throes of that year's catastrophic wildfires. Amanda was still making sense of her parent's near-miss with wildfire the year prior and, as a new pediatrician in Richmond, was just starting to see the ways in which the Chevron refinery was impacting the health of her patients. We came together -- literally in Ashley's exam room where Amanda was her patient! -- under the premise that climate change is a health emergency and as health providers, we needed to spread that message, united in our conviction that action is the antidote to fear.

In the last two years we have come along a very steep learning curve. We have gained a deep appreciation for the ways in which racial injustice, White supremacy, racism, and structural inequity are inextricably related to the climate crisis. We have learned about the movement for environmental justice in California and the groundswell of community and local groups who have been leading in this work for decades. And there is still so much we do not know.

Over the last two years we have become a group of over 500 health professionals across California. We have had some positive impacts and we've also made missteps. Now, two years in, we are stepping back and assessing where we are and where we'd like to go. We are rooting CHN’s values—and our leadership—not in fear but in fierce love: for our families, our patients, for all California communities, and for the exquisite web of life of which we are a part.

Here is our proposed vision for CHN moving forward.

  • Climate Health Now is grounded in community organizing -- using the theories and practices of Marshall Ganz and the Leading Change Network for building people power for social change. We work to organize and mobilize the voices of California health professionals and clinicians across the state to become part of the larger climate justice movement.
  • We focus on 3 primary areas:
  • Where we practice:
  • Decarbonizing the healthcare sector through our own institutions, which contribute 8-10% of GHG emissions in the U.S.
  • Organizing within organized medicine (e.g., CMA, AAP, regional medical societies) to advance climate change as institutional priorities through introducing resolutions and compelling our organized medicine groups to lobby for climate legislation and regulations in California
  • In our communities:
  • Leveraging our professional influence as allies in community partnerships -- using our trusted health voices to work with and lift up environmental justice and community-based organization partners around their climate justice campaigns to realize health equity for all.

We are starting with building an external Advisory Council of people with experience in a range of areas, including community organizing, environmental justice, legislative advocacy, communications, racial justice, health, and climate policy. We will continue to work with the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health as the California state affiliate. We are looking to expand our leadership team to include a greater diversity of voices across race, class, gender, and health professions. We are planning to work with a professional coaching team starting in early 2022 to build a stronger foundation and structure for CHN so that we can be more goal-oriented, inclusive, transparent, connected and effective moving forward. We also want to make sure we are working in respectful, intentional partnership with community groups who are on the frontlines of facing the consequences of environmental injustice -- whose leadership we have much to learn from. 

We are eager to get feedback on these ideas in the weeks and months ahead and know this will be an iterative process. If you are called to learn more, or to get involved, please reach out -- we would love to talk.

Thank you to each and every one of you for sharing your expertise, your fears, your hopes, and your time with us. We are honored to be walking this path with you all and believe, more than ever, that together we can play a role in building a better tomorrow.

In solidarity and with hope,
Amanda Millstein and Ashley McClure